This is my blog on all things Oracle. I was an Enterprise Architect for a unnamed company, doing unamed things.
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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Configuration of an Exadata Part II

After seeing how popular Configuration of An Exadata Part I was, I figured I would follow up with a part II.

First off there a couple of things I'd like to point out. Along with an Exadata waiting to be configured at this point, I have a Netezza Twin fin waiting to be configured. Many of the reasons why it is taking so long, aren't specifically because of it being an Exadata.

We did do a POC on an Exadata, and Oracle was able to bring it in quickly. It took a day or so to fill out the configuration sheet, and Oracle had the machine up within 1 week. One onsite person for a couple of days, and we were off and running. Although the Netezza video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB7rlChCG-E is very humorous, it doesn't tell the whole picture. I would guess if you are coming from SQL-Server, which some people are, then the video is probably a little more realistic.

Anyway, as many of you can guess a POC is nothing like bringing a new production box into your production datacenter, to be supported by your production support staff. In the POC, there was no dataguard to instantiate, no backups to take, everyone on the POC knew the root, and oracle passwords, and the machine sat in the middle of a lab.

Bringing the box into a production environment is where all the questions begin. In a company that needs approval from support teams, the Exadata brings up a lot of questions. An appliance like the netezza brings up fewer questions, but still there are some hurdles.

At this point we are still coming up with a backup strategy that gives everyone some degree of comfort, without constantly being in hot backup mode. Utilizing 1ge for backup can be very painful. The configuration worksheets are finally completed, and ACS will be scheduled to come in, once we get some new switches.

In case you missed Part I in the Netezza slam Exadata series it's here.